Have you ever started cooking without reading a recipe to the end? Just the list of ingredients. And after proceeding through the first two paragraphs, when it’s a few minutes until dinner, to stumble upon something like: now place in the low oven for three hours or marinate in the refrigerator overnight.

Well, I reached the new low — or high? — started the recipe without reading even the list of ingredients — just the title: corn pakoras.

Corn seemed good enough to give it a go — five ears were asking to be used. Two cups of kernels.

What could go wrong in my well stocked kitchen? Chopped red onions, minced cilantro, Kashmiri powder, ground coriander, cumin seeds. Until the last line tripped me — chickpea flour. There was none.

Dilemma: with everything chopped and mixed — should it be now regular flour or a falafel mix that happened to be on hand? With regular flour, they will no longer be pakoras. With falafel mix, liquid and the process should be completely different.

Since the taste buds were already leaning towards cilantro and tamarind chutneys in went falafel mix and a cup of hot water instead of half of cold seltzer.

To my surprise, I got lucky and my modified corn pakoras — or was it now falafel with corn — held their shape in hot oil and turned out great.

#food #cooking #corn #pakoras #falafel #homemade #onmyplate #cookingexperiment

Loss makes philosophers, player makes heroes, #pakoras makes sages.